Monument Valley
Said goodbye to the El Rancho Hotel in Gallup. Neat old hotel built in the 1930’s but the rooms were small, the beds were small, and the bathroom was small. Each of the rooms are named after an old movie star. Maybe they were small too.
On the road to Monument Valley we passed by these formations. The photos just don’t show the colors in the swirls as the sun and clouds pass over.
The photo on the left is the visiter center. At the end of the parking lot are the tour guides and open vans. My plan was to take a tour on the valley floor. However, they wanted $120/person. Just too expensive considering you can drive the route in your own vehicle if it has high clearance. Others must have felt the same as most of the guides were asleep in their vans. We returned to the visiter center to take it in.
These photos were taken from the visiter center. The pinnacles are in a row. It’s difficult to imagines they were once part of a mountain range that eroded away eons ago. My grandson and I sat and talked about movies that used these in the background. I remember a 1964 Chevy commercial that placed a red Impala convertible with a lady model on top of one of these pinnacles. Check it out on YouTube.
This is the route on the valley floor through the pinnacles. We sat and watched the cars to see if one with a lower clearance was taking the route. Finally the temptation was too much. I told Aidan that we would try it and if we had trouble we would turn around and back out. So off we went. As we approached the trail head a van stopped us and said don’t try it. He had a heavy German accent and since I had lived in Fredericksburg I knew not to argue with a German. So we backed out.
The views returning to Kayenta continued to be awesome. Even my 17 year old grandson was impressed. I am blessed to check off one more must do on my bucket list.
Tomorrow: Grand Canyon and back on Route 66 to Kingman AZ.
The Boomer and the iGen On 66 